The reality is that 80% of the players are stealing money from the top 20% of players. You have guys who averaged 10-11 points and a few rebounds on average/low efficiency getting deals paying $17-18 million a year when that money REALLY belongs to the star players who fans actually come to see on a regular basis (Lebron, Curry, KD, westbrook, CP3, DWade, PG13, Lillard, Harden, Kyrie, etc). Without those guys, the NBA wouldn't generate the kind of revenue and profits that it does which means these 10 points and 3 rebound type guys wouldn't be receiving anything close to $17-18 million a year.

What the NBA needs to do is get rid of this "max contract" stuff and let star players receive what they're truly worth....$35-40-50-60 million a year...whatever. By doing this, the star players are paid what they're actually worth and these mediocre guys that no one really comes to see play get paid what they're worth (ie less than $10 million a year).